Barclays hires Pratt to head debt capital mkts - IFR

HONG KONG, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Barclays Capital has hired Jon Pratt to head its debt capital markets business as British lender Barclays Plc steps up hiring to tap into the growth potential of fast-growing Asian bond markets, Thomson Reuters publication IFR said on Friday.

Pratt joins from U.S. money manager Rockefeller & Co where he was a managing director in charge of institutional relationships.

He joins a debt franchise that stood sixth in the league table for bond issues in dollars, euros and yen from Asia, excluding Japan and Australia as of August 31, thanks mainly to an unequalled run of sovereign mandates earlier in the year.

Pratt is expected to report to Andy Jones and Patrick Kwan, co-heads of global finance and risk solutions for Asia-Pacific. Barclays has not named a head of Asian DCM since Cynthia Whelan transferred to Australia in early 2009, IFR said.

Pratt will be based out of Hong Kong.

The latest hiring follows the departure of Anthony Shum, a director in the debt capital markets group at BarCap, who left in July for a similar job at Credit Suisse.

Global investment banks have been scrambling to beef up their Asian franchises by either moving people into the region from elsewhere or by poaching from competitors.

In June, Credit Suisse moved in a banker from its emerging market debt syndicate team in New York to Asia to head its Asian debt syndicate and hired another banker from Goldman Sachs's global syndicate team..

(Reporting by Stephen Garton; Editing by Chris Lewis)

(([e-mail]; [phone]; Reuters Messaging: [e-mail])) Keywords: BARCLAYS/HIRE (If you have a query or comment on this story, send an email to [e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.